Nikki's Night Of Nail Polish
by RySenkari
Summary: Nikki and Caitlin are having a sleepover together, but Nikki's being her usual grumpy self. To cheer her up, Caitlin decides to give her a makeover... whether Nikki likes it or not! Takes place just before the events of "Snow Job".


Three hours into her sleepover with her overly joyful friend Caitlin, Nikki Wong was starting to regret agreeing to the idea in the first place. She'd spent plenty of nights at Jen's house, but that was because Jen actually had fun things for the two of them to do… and the fact that she lived with Jonesy was an even bigger bonus… or at least it had been since the two of them broke up. Watching one of Caitlin's favorite romantic comedies just reminded Nikki of that fact even more.

"Okay, so it's your turn to come up with what we do next!" said Caitlin, excitedly clapping her hands as Nikki sat on the living room couch, her arms across her chest. "I've got every board game imaginable, or we can just look for something fun to watch on TV, or we could go onto the computer and try to find compatible guys from foreign countries!"

"Pass to all three of those ideas," sighed Nikki, rolling her eyes. "Board games are lame, TV is lamer, and there are plenty of guys right here in Canada… if I was even interested in guys, anyway."

"Aww… Nikki, I'm starting to think you don't like it here," said Caitlin, her voice lined with disappointment.

"Of course I like it here," Nikki replied rather unenthusiastically. "I mean… you've got a nice house. Let's explore your house."

Caitlin could tell that Nikki had no idea about what to do next, and another walk around the house would just be killing time. She wanted to do something _fun_, something that she could really involve Nikki with. She thought for a moment, her eyes rolling up, looking at the ceiling… then she thought about something her friend had just said and it made her gasp with excitement.

"Nikki, I bet there are lots of cute guys right here who'd totally dig you! And I bet if you had one of them you'd be a lot more excited about doing other stuff too!"

"Are you kidding, Caitlin?" Nikki groaned, rising from the couch. "I told you, guys aren't my thing right now. I'm still trying to get over you-know-who."

"I bet you'd get over him a lot faster if you had a cute guy to hang out with!" Caitlin cooed, taking Nikki by the arm and leading her toward the stairs. Nikki thought about pulling away, but allowed herself to be led up the stairs out of sheer morbid curiosity over what Caitlin might be thinking. "But first, we've got to change your appearance a bit."

Nikki stopped at the top of the stairs and turned toward Caitlin, giving her an offended glare.

"Wait, wait, what's wrong with my appearance, huh? I mean, I'm not a girly-girl like you, but I know I'm not ugly."

"Guys are into a certain kind of look, Nikki… and if you can't find another guy with your look, maybe it's time to change things up a bit. Come on…" Caitlin began leading Nikki down the hallway to her room and turned on the light, revealing pink walls slathered with boy band posters and a bed covered with large stuffed animals. Nikki again rolled her eyes.

"By the way, we're not sleeping in here," Nikki said, her voice retaining its annoyed quality. Caitlin led her to a wooden pink chair facing a desk with a large mirror attached to it, which Nikki sat down in and waited as Caitlin began fishing for items out of her various desks and drawers. "I think I'd rather sleep in the basement than in this pinkberry purgatory."

"Oh, our basement's pretty nice," said Caitlin with a smile, "but that's where Daddy keeps all his important law stuff, so we probably can't go in there."

"Fine, fine, the living room floor," Nikki responded, rolling her eyes again. "Anywhere but in here."

As Nikki sat silently in the chair, Caitlin began organizing her various nail polishes and assorted facial creams in one drawer while combing through eyeliner pens and lipsticks in the other. She looked back over at Nikki, then in the drawers again.

"_There is no way Nikki's gonna let me do all the stuff I wanna do…" _thought Caitlin, opening another drawer and picking up a length of thick pink yarn. _"Unless she can't stop me… this might be risky, but if it saves my friend from depression and a yucky attitude, then it's a risk worth taking!"_

Holding the yarn in one hand, Caitlin turned to Nikki, who had repositioned the chair so that it faced away from the mirror.

"What's wrong, Nikki…? Can't even look at yourself?" Caitlin said, walking over to her. Nikki's eyes widened, then followed Caitlin for a moment, though they stopped before her friend squeezed in between the desk and the chair.

"If you call me ugly one more time, I'm gonna…" Nikki stopped herself and bowed her head. _"Maybe Caitlin's right, maybe I'm going at this all wrong. But who cares what guys think, right? I like my look, and if guys don't, then to hell with them! I know one guy who respected me for doing my own thing. Well, not 'respected', really, but…" _

As Nikki was lost in her thoughts, Caitlin had gently taken both of Nikki's wrists and placed them behind her back and the chair. She began wrapping the yarn around them and the bars on the chair's back, but instead of immediately resisting, Nikki began talking to herself, still thinking about her ex-boyfriend Jonesy.

"I don't need to change my look for anyone. If Jonesy liked me the way I was, at least for a little while, then a lot of guys should like me. His standards were… well, I wouldn't say, low, but-" Instinctively, Nikki went to put her hand to her cheek, only to realize that she couldn't really move her arms at all. She began tugging fiercely, but they were stuck behind the chair, crossed and bound together tightly with the thick pink yarn, with two more knots keeping her bound wrists fixed to the bars at the back of the chair. When Nikki realized what Caitlin had done she immediately snapped out of her thoughts and focused her eyes on Caitlin, now standing in front of her. "What did you just do?!"

"I'm getting you ready for your makeover," Caitlin said, smiling sweetly.

"My WHAT?!" Nikki screamed, kicking her legs up at Caitlin several times, who simply stepped back and watched as her friend thrashed against the chair. "You let me go this instant, or I'm gonna-"

"All I want to do is make you all pretty and take some nice pictures of you! Then I'm gonna e-mail the pictures to some guys from our school and-"

"I'm gonna break your legs!" shouted Nikki, kicking at Caitlin several times. "Let me go!"

Caitlin waited a few moments, then grabbed one of Nikki's legs and held it against the front leg of the chair. She quickly switched her hand with her left foot, using it to pin Nikki's ankle as she wrapped yarn tightly around it to bind it to the leg of the chair, all the while dodging kicks from Nikki's other leg that were aimed at her head. Nikki squirmed and thrashed, screaming as the yarn around her right ankle was knotted and cinched tight.

"Caitlin, where did you learn to tie knots like that?" Nikki asked, still kicking as Caitlin tried to grab her other leg. The bonds around her wrists hadn't even begun to budge, held fast by two knots securing her wrists to one another along with the two securing them to the back of the chair.

"Three years in Girl Scouts!" Caitlin said proudly, finally managing to grab Nikki's other ankle and pin it so it could be bound to the other front leg of the chair. Nikki's anger ceased for a moment, and she blinked her eyes, silently amazed at Caitlin's excellent ropework. "Oh, you're impressed? Cool! Jen said the same thing when I tied her up at one of her sleepovers!"

"…you did this to Jen too?!" Nikki yelled, her anger returning and her upper body lurching forward toward Caitlin. "She should've kicked your ass for it like I'm going to when I get out of this!"

"Well, she was mad for a while, but we had so much fun together that she kinda cheered up!" Caitlin said happily, walking over to one of her drawers and starting to pile several items on the top of the desk behind the chair Nikki was tied to. "But you remember those two days at the mall that Jen didn't talk to me? That's why."

Nikki resumed trying to escape, her arms tugging at the bonds behind her while she tried to free her legs from the yarn binding them to the chair. All her attempts at escape were futile, and she could only watch as Caitlin began bringing various cosmetic items to lay on the desk behind her, thinking that by the end of the night, most of them will have been placed somewhere on her body.

"_Tonight's gonna be hell…" _thought Nikki, bowing her head and somewhat resigning herself to her fate. A few seconds later, she could feel Caitlin's hand on her chin, lifting up her head to look into her eyes. "WHAT?"

"See, I knew you were gonna be grumpy about this, but that's okay," said Caitlin, holding up a roll of flesh-colored tape. "I'll need to keep you quiet so you don't disturb my work, hope you don't mind…"

Upon learning that she was about to be gagged, Nikki got even angrier, her eyes narrowing as Caitlin ripped off a strip of tape from the roll.

"You are _not _gagging me, Caitlin. I am giving you one last chance to untie me from this chair, or I'm going to do something so bad to you that I haven't even thought it up yet!"

"Maybe if you were a little nicer to me," said Caitlin, holding up the strip of tape, "I wouldn't have to gag you! Now put your lips together-"

"Screw you!" Nikki shouted, beginning to thrash in the chair yet again. "I hope you know this is kidnapping, which, with your criminal record, I don't think you can afford."

"Criminal record?!" Caitlin snapped back, offended. "That one for shoplifting, I was framed, and the one where I supposedly stalked that guy, that was… that was… oooh…!"

Caitlin quickly pressed the tape over Nikki's mouth, resulting in an immediate muffled scream of protest. The screams continued, and Caitlin could clearly start to discern swear words through the tape.

"Ymmm crrrmmmzmm bmtch!" Nikki shouted, her chair starting to rock back and forth. "Mmm gmmmpgggh kmck yrrrm asssmmmph!"

"Well this won't do at all," replied Caitlin, hastily ripping another strip off the roll and pressing it over the first one, just below it so that the bottom of the strip of tape hugged Nikki's chin. For good measure, she pressed two more strips over it in the shape of an 'X', then slapped another long strip over the center of everything, covering up the length of Nikki's face from one cheek to the other. Finally, Nikki's protests had been reduced to indecipherable 'mmmph's, and Caitlin was satisfied that she could finally get to work. "I promise, when I'm done you'll have guys swarming all over you!"

"_When you untie me, you'll have flies swarming all over you because you'll be dead!" _thought Nikki, screaming out another muffled swear. Caitlin walked back around to the desk where she'd laid out her various makeup items and picked up a container of red lipstick, extending it to make sure it was just the right color. She smiled when she saw it, then took it around to the front of the chair and showed it to Nikki. _"Lipstick? Geez…"_

"Isn't it a pretty color?" Caitlin asked.

"_How are you even gonna put it on me?" _thought Nikki, glaring angrily into Caitlin's eyes. _"You just slathered like a million pieces of tape on my mouth."_

"Now just hold still," Caitlin said, bending over and starting to apply the lipstick exactly where Nikki's lips were underneath the tape. Nikki recoiled when the lipstick touched her face, but Caitlin just continued working, using one arm to hold Nikki's head still while the other one carefully worked to apply the lipstick just right. "Hold still! You don't wanna look like the Joker, do you?"

Caitlin mentioning the Joker briefly made Nikki think of all the demented, terrible things she could do to Caitlin once she got free. She shoved those thoughts aside and continued struggling, though her fighting didn't manage to impede Caitlin's work or deter her from finishing. Finally, Caitlin backed off and picked up a small vanity mirror, holding it up to Nikki's face and showing her the results. Nikki's eyes widened. Caitlin had painted a perfect pair of ruby red lips over the flesh-colored tape covering Nikki's mouth.

"Awww, don't you look pretty?" Caitlin cooed, taking a few steps back. "And look! From far away it doesn't look like there's tape on your mouth at all! I did such a great job… oh, the guys'll be all over you! Those lips look so kissable!"

"Mmmmmmmmrrrrrmmmmm! Mmmmmmmmm! Mmmmmmmm!" Nikki began thrashing again, trying to rub the lipstick off on her shoulder. With her arms bound behind her, she couldn't get her mouth to touch any part of her arm, and she wasn't able to smudge any of the lipstick, try as she might. "Mmmmmmmmmmm!"

"Now let's see… oh, those piercings, they totally gotta go."

Caitlin walked back over to Nikki, reaching up to her face and carefully removing the stud from Nikki's nose. All Nikki could do was let out another silent protest, she dared not struggle and risk causing her friend to rip the piercing out. She clenched her fists behind her as the studs were then removed from her eyebrows, and then the tiny rings from her ear, all of them placed with loving care on one of the drawers.

"Now you're STARTING to look pretty…" said Caitlin, "but there's more work that needs to be done. Your cheeks look so… ordinary! They need some blush, like mine! Hold that thought…"

Caitlin let out a squeal and grabbed a small container of pink rouge from the desk. Nikki shook her head frantically, but Caitlin continued grabbing things, including another container of rouge and a big brush with which to apply it.

"Mmmmmmmmmm! MMMMMMMMMM!!! _If you put that stuff on my face I'm gonna have to kill you, do you hear me? Do you hear me? …god, of course she can't hear me._"

Caitlin opened up both containers of rouge and held them up in front of Nikki's face.

"Which one would you like to try? The pink or the red? Most days I go with pink, but sometimes when I really really want to look cute for a boy, I'll try red and it totally makes me look four years younger. That's when I want to pick up a younger guy! Usually those dates end with them trying to get me into Yu-Gi-Oh cards or something. That's why I stopped dating younger guys, but sometimes one of them reeeeeeally looks like he likes me, and I wanna try to be nice so I…"

Nikki bowed her head and let out another sigh. At least Caitlin's mental wandering was a brief respite from the hell she was going through… but once Caitlin got her mind back on track, the frilly pink train was full steam ahead.

"Pink or red?" Caitlin asked again, practically shoving the rouge into Nikki's face. Nikki just looked up at her friend with a powerful glare.

"_Is 'go screw yourself' an option?" _

"Ohhhhh…. I think pink! Pink will look great on you! Not as great as it looks on me, but here goes!" Caitlin squealed, dabbing the brush in the rouge container and applying it to Nikki's cheek. Again, Nikki tried to turn away, but Caitlin was persistent and careful, and within about a minute was already working on the other cheek. Try as she might, Nikki couldn't deflect the rouge away from her face, unable to deal with Caitlin's steady hands. After about a minute and a half, both of Nikki's cheeks had been given a generous amount of rouge, and all Nikki could do was continue glaring, hoping her message of hate and rage would somehow get through. "Now for your eyes! A light amount of eye shadow would be perfect! And don't try squirming this time…"

Nikki didn't, stopping her struggles as Caitlin's eye shadow pen drew dangerous close to her eyeballs. Like the rouge Caitlin had used earlier, the eye shadow was pink, and Nikki feared exactly what affect it would have on her carefully cultivated appearance. She'd used purple and black eye liner from time to time, but pink eye shadow clashed with everything she stood for. In other words, it was a 'Caitlin thing'.

"Perfect…! It's so pretty, look!" Caitlin held the vanity mirror up to Nikki's face once again. Nikki let out a scream, seeing how much the pink eye shadow had softened her look, making her almost as girly as Caitlin. The rouge was equally bad, it made Nikki's cheeks shimmer, and combined with the lipstick over her tape-sealed mouth, her face almost resembled that of a porcelain doll. Nikki's expression changed from one of anger to one of pure horror. "Oh, I know, I almost don't recognize you either!"

"MMMMMMMM! MMMMMMRRRRMMMMPH! MMM MMMM!!!" Nikki looked up at Caitlin. _"What's WRONG with you? This isn't me, this is… some freaky girly weirdo who likes ponies and puppies and cute things! This isn't me, it's you!"_

"Well we're not done yet," said Caitlin indignantly, putting her hands on her hips. "I've still got to apply the nail polish. Don't you want your nails to look all shiny and pretty? Hold on…"

Caitlin walked to her desk and picked up a bottle of pink nail polish as Nikki frantically looked around for a way she could escape. Even if there was, she knew she couldn't reach it, tied up as she was. She was stuck, completely at Caitlin's mercy, only able to offer up glares and muffled threats.

"_Maybe Caitlin will get bored of this and stop on her own… no way, she's having more fun with this than anything she's ever done before. My only hope is if she faints from the nail polish fumes or something! Ugh, I never should've agreed to come over here!"_

The next thing Nikki felt was Caitlin's nail polish brush lightly coating her fingernails in pink polish. With her wrists bound in place, Nikki could only move her fingers around to block Caitlin's brush, but this was a futile effort, as Caitlin could simply use two of her hands to hold one of Nikki's fingers in place long enough for the polish to be applied. Around the third fingernail, Nikki stopped fighting it and let Caitlin finish painting.

"Now that that's all done, we gotta work on your toenails!" Caitlin said, walking back around to the front of Nikki's chair. "And maybe later I'll give you a full pedicure! Won't that be awesome? I remember my mom giving me and all my friends pedicures at my slumber parties when I was little… all those fun memories are flooding back, isn't this great?"

Nikki watched wide-eyed as Caitlin stripped off her shoes and socks. Because Nikki had worn short socks that day, the yarn binding her ankles hadn't been tied over them, and they slipped off easily, leaving Nikki's feet bare and leaving her toenails at the mercy of Caitlin's polish. Nikki didn't even bother physically resisting this time, she allowed her friend to paint her toenails, though she glared and cursed the whole time. Once they were done, Nikki looked down at them and rolled her eyes, embarrassed that her toenails were now pink. Again, she'd occasionally painted them purple, though even then she didn't anticipate there being any guys seeing them.

"All done, now your toes look really pretty!" said Caitlin, who then briefly ran her hands lightly across the soles of Nikki's feet. "Wow, your feet are really smooth already… maybe I won't need to give you a pedicure after all..."

The feeling of Caitlin's hands rubbing across Nikki's feet drew an involuntary snicker from the bound girl, though she immediately let out a yell of protest once her laugh had ended.

"_Don't you ever touch my feet again!"_

"Ohhhh… your feet are ticklish?" Caitlin asked, running her hands across Nikki's soles again, this time a bit more slowly. Nikki let out several more laughs, wincing and screaming as she felt the light tickling sensations of Caitlin's palms. "Mine aren't really all that ticklish, I let a guy tickle them once but I didn't laugh very much… then he dumped me! Can you believe it, a guy dumping me because my feet aren't ticklish? Well, you won't have any problems with that, huh?"

Nikki looked down into her friend's eyes with a very serious expression.

"_I am gonna warn you ONE MORE TIME, don't touch my feet!"_

"Hey… maybe if I tickle you some more, you won't be so grumpy! Okay, here comes the tickle bug ready to tickle you into Tickleland!"

Caitlin's fingers began dancing across Nikki's soles, sending the serious-faced girl into convulsions of frantic laughter. Upon seeing her friend's physical reaction, Caitlin began laughing as well, her tickling intensifying and sending both girls into giggles and glee. However, while Caitlin was legitimately having fun, Nikki was enraged, her laughter betraying the anger she felt at being the subject of her friend's amusement. Her entire body rocked back and forth, her eyes were closed and she was wheezing air in and out of her nose, but in her mind, all she was thinking was getting out of the chair and strangling Caitlin.

"_I'm… gonna… kill… that… bitch…!" _Nikki thought, her fists clenching both as a sign of her rage and in order to stifle her furious involuntary laughter. "MMMMMMMMM! MMMM MMMMM! MMMMMMMMM!!! MMMMMMMPH!!!"

Finally, after a couple minutes of tickling, Caitlin took a break, standing up and clutching her stomach as she continued to laugh. She wiped a tear from her eye and turned back to Nikki, who had tears streaming down the sides of her face. Fortunately, they weren't causing her makeup to run.

"See? Tickling's lots of fun! Maybe sometime you and me and Jen can get together and have a tickle party, and-"

"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!" Nikki glared up at Caitlin, her eyes displaying pure rage as a vein throbbed in her forehead. Caitlin involuntarily backed off, frightened by her friend's anger. _"Yeah, now you get it! Now you see how pissed off I am!"_

"Hey…" said Caitlin calmly, trying to calm her friend as well. "I'm gonna let you cool off a bit while I go put on my PJs. When I get back, I'll take the pictures to post up on the Internet, k? Be back in a bit!"

Caitlin walked out of the room and closed the door, leaving the bound Nikki alone with her thoughts. She looked down at her feet again, the pink nail polish on her toenails reminding her just how angry and humiliated she was. She was going to escape. She had to escape. And when she did escape, she was going to make Caitlin sorry.

"_First things first…" _thought Nikki. _"I gotta get out of this chair."_

She knew she wasn't going to escape by struggling free. Caitlin's years of Girl Scout knot-tying experience had made that quite an impossible dream. In order to escape, Nikki knew she'd somehow have to move herself along the floor to find a pair of scissors that she could use to cut her bonds.

"_This might be painful, but only for a few seconds."_

Nikki looked down at the floor, a plush pink carpet that would definitely cushion her fall. For once, she thanked God for Caitlin's taste in upholstery. Then, with all her might, she began to lurch herself forward, trying to put all her force into tipping over the chair. She pushed forward once… pushed again… finally, on the third try, she brought the chair down. She'd managed to tip it in such a way that she landed on her side, which would allow her either to use her left leg to drag herself along or perhaps tip herself onto her back and drag herself with her fingers. However, when she fell, something fell out of her pocket, landing a few feet from her head.

"_My phone…! I forgot I had it with me!"_

Nikki moved her leg as much as the yarn tying her ankle to the chair would allow, dragging her body along inch by inch until she'd positioned herself by the phone, close enough that she could see the buttons and hit them with her nose. She then began to wonder about who she would call.

"_The cops?" _Nikki shook her head. _"What Caitlin's doing is a bitch move, but not an arrest-worthy move. Besides, our friendship's still salvageable, at least after I get free and knock some sense back into her. Who else…? Oh… Jen."_

Jen Masterson, best friend to both Nikki and Caitlin. According to Caitlin, Jen had already had some experience with her friend's overzealous knot-tying, so if anyone would be able to get her out of this situation, it would absolutely be her. That was all the thinking Nikki needed, she maneuvered her face over to the phone and with her nose, began typing out a text message. With time of the essence, all she could spell out was 'At Caitlin's'. She then hit the speed-dial button for Jen. A couple of rings later, and…

O-O-O

"Hello?" Jen answered. She was enjoying a strawberry cappuccino at the Starbucks, about a mile away from Caitlin's house.

"MMMMMMMMMMM! MMMMMMMMMMM! MMMMMMMM!!!" Nikki screamed into the phone. She obviously couldn't convey exactly what was going on, but hoped that the frantic tone of her voice would let Jen know everything she needed to know to come and rescue her.

"Uh… Nikki?" Jen said, knowing it was her friend from the caller ID on her phone. "I got your text message… I know you're at Caitlin's tonight, we talked about it at the mall."

"MMMMMMMMMMM! MMMMMMMMMM!!!! _Jen, I need help! Get over here and untie me!_"

"Do you have a bad connection or something? I can hear you but I can't tell what you're saying at all. Are you in the basement?"

"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!! _Jen, I'm not in the basement, I'm gagged! Can't you tell I'm gagged?!"_

"Caitlin wouldn't let me go in the basement when I was over there, she said her dad had some important stuff down there that he didn't want me touching," said Jen, her voice sounding a bit annoyed. "Are you in a closet or something? Is Caitlin showing you one of her new outfits?"

"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! MMMMMMMM!!!!"

By now, Nikki was getting extremely furious and frustrated. Jen was still bewildered by her friend's phone call, unable to realize that Nikki was gagged, she still thought something was interfering with the call.

"Nikki, you don't have to yell, okay? If you want to talk on the phone, go somewhere where you get a better connection, if not, I'm gonna finish my coffee."

"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!! _NO! Jen, don't you dare hang up this phone, or I swear to God I'm gonna-_"

It wasn't Jen who hung up the phone, it was Caitlin, picking Nikki's phone up from the ground and pushing the 'end call' button. Nikki's eyes went wide, and she let out a muffled cry of frustration.

"Okay, be that way," said Jen, putting her own phone back in her pocket and finishing up her cappuccino. _"She's so touchy…"_

O-O-O

"Were you trying to call for help?" asked Caitlin with a giggle as she set Nikki's chair back upright. "Naughty naughty! Just for that, I should tickle you some more!"

Nikki didn't dignify Caitlin with a response, she simply bowed her head and released a frustrated sigh from her nose. The next thing she heard were three clicks of a digital camera, all from behind her. Caitlin came around and held the camera up, showing off the three pictures she took on the screen. All three pictures were of Nikki's bound wrists, all designed to show off her pink nail-polish.

"These pictures might be a little bit too sexy to show off, but then again, the submissive look is kinda new for you, right?" Caitlin asked, causing Nikki to let out a scream of horror and anger. "All I know is that you'll definitely get some guys looking twice at these!"

"_Yeah, all the sick skeazy S&M sex perverts!" _Nikki shot Caitlin another glare. _"What the hell are you thinking?"_

"I guess I can crop out the ropes or something, I'll have to get Darth to teach me how to do that-"

"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! MMMMMMMM! MMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!! _YOU AREN'T SHOWING ANY OF THESE PICTURES TO DARTH! YOU HEAR ME?!_" The thought of Darth, the nerdy kid from the mall who had an enormous crush on Nikki getting anywhere within a hundred mile radius of the pictures Caitlin was taking was just about the last straw. Nikki began thrashing again, turning her head wildly back and forth whenever Caitlin would try to take a picture of her face. "NMMMMMMMMM! MMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMM!!!"

"Okay, okay, I'll get someone else to teach me," Caitlin replied, understanding what Nikki was worried about. "You think I'd try to hook you up with _Darth_? C'mon, Nikki, we're good friends, all I want is to get you with a nice guy so you won't be all sad anymore…"

Nikki calmed down a bit, though she still had an angry expression on her face as Caitlin looked at her.

"Mmmmmmmmmm! Mmmmmmmmm?!" Nikki let out a series of exasperated cries, trying to get Caitlin to understand her next series of thoughts. _"You did this as a friend? You tied me up and humiliated me against my will as a FRIEND?! What the hell kind of friend are you?"_

"I know, I know, you don't like being tied up like this… but it was the only way to… the only way to make you look pretty, you know? Now c'mon, I'll let you go as soon as I take these last few…" Caitlin snapped a few more pictures, and this time Nikki didn't turn away, she just continued giving her friend the same mixed expression of anger and hurt. After about twelve more shots, she put the camera down on the desk and reached over to take the tape off Nikki's mouth. "If I take this off do you promise not to-"

"_Hell no," _Nikki thought, her expression saying the exact same thing.

"Fine, be that way!" Caitlin snapped, putting her arms to her hips and leaving Nikki's gag on. "I'm… I'm gonna go post these pictures!"

"Nmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!" Nikki screamed, lurching forward and shaking her head as Caitlin started to leave the room. _"Should've tried acting like I wasn't going to cuss her out when she took the tape off… maybe she'd have removed the gag and I could've tried calling Jen again once she left!"_

But Caitlin had already left, and Nikki was once again alone with her thoughts, helpless until her friend returned.

"_Caitlin, I swear… you gotta let me go sometime, and when you do I'm gonna rip you to pieces!"_

O-O-O

Caitlin didn't come back for more than a half hour, and in that time, Nikki remained bound to her chair, getting more and more annoyed. When Caitlin returned, she was carrying her pink laptop with her, and she seemed rather excited as she set the computer down on Nikki's lap.

"Okay, I decided to send out the pics, but only to one guy," said Caitlin, smiling at her friend. Nikki's eyes grew wide as saucers.

"_OH NO… DARTH?!" _thought Nikki, starting to let out a scream.

"I know what you're thinking, and it's not Darth. I sent the pics as an attachment to an e-mail and the guy totally replied in like ten minutes!"

The screen was displaying a webpage containing an e-mail reply. Nikki's eyes scanned over the address and she let out a squeal of disbelief.

"_Jonesy?"_

O-O-O

The e-mail read:

_Hey, Cait, these are some pretty neat pics you and Nikki snapped! Gotta say, Nikki, I'm not sure what to think about the shots of your hands tied like that. I mean, I guess it's kinda hot and all, but I didn't have ya pegged as the submissive type, and it's kinda weird now that I think about it. Hot, but weird. The pics of your face all dolled up are a lot better though! You are one hot babe, no doubt about it! Still, I gotta say, I like the old Nikki too. Aw man, this is hard, do I really gotta choose? I mean, no I don't, cuz we're not dating anymore. Aw, why'd you send me these pics if we're not dating? Now my head's all confused!_

_Well, what I really wanted to say is, no matter what you look like, you're still hot to me. Does that make sense? I'm not sure it does, but… I better just click "Send" before I get even more confused and type more stupid stuff. _

_Lotsa love,_

_Jonesy_

_P.S. If you're uh… into that kinda thing… would you let me tie you up if we ever got back together? I mean, if you let Caitlin do it, I mean... I better click "Send"._

O-O-O

Nikki blinked a couple of times, not sure what to think. She knew Jonesy still found her attractive, and vice-versa, but she also knew that if they started dating again, their friendship would be badly compromised. Still, she found his letter strangely comforting, even if the post-script creeped her out.

"_I'd never let him tie me up in a billion years," _thought Nikki, flexing in her bonds. _"…even if this is… almost comfortable after a while…"_

She rapidly shook her head and glared at Caitlin again.

"Awwww, I saw your face! You were glad Jonesy liked the pictures, weren't you?"

"_Of course he'd like the pictures, he still has a super crush on me, even if he is a chauvinistic, womanizing pig of a…" _Nikki's expression softened again as Caitlin lifted the computer from her lap. Even if she had been humiliated and embarrassed, her friend's little stunt did remind her of just how much the one man who she did want in her life really did care about her. _"Okay, Caitlin… maybe I'm not so mad at you after all."_

Caitlin giggled.

"See? I knew I could come up with something you'd like! You're happier already!"

Caitlin then knelt back down beside Nikki. As Nikki, her mind now filled with thoughts of Jonesy, allowed her taped lips to slowly curve into the shape of a smile, she once again felt familiar fingers flutter across her feet. Her eyes widened and she launched into another torrent of laughter.

"_I take that back! Caitlin, when I get out of this, you're DEAD!"_

**THE END**


End file.
